A Greener Shade of Blue? Reflections on New Conservative Approaches to the Environment S3518

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a greener shade of blue? reflections on new Conservative approaches to the environment S3518

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11/5/07 opn iie ygaate registered number 3037633 Company Limited by guarantee, Green number 1045395. Alliance isaregistered charity www.green-alliance.org.ukwebsite: [email protected] email: 02072339033 0207233 7433 fax: tel: SW1W0RE London, Palace36 Buckingham Road, Green Alliance was published andwithoutasimilarcondition includingtheconditionbeingimposedonasubsequentpurchaser. otherwise circulated withoutthepublisher’s consentinany prior formofbindingorcover it otherthaninwhich hired outor resold, belent, by way oftradeorotherwise, issoldsubjecttoconditionthatThis report itshallnot, ofthelicensesissuedbyaccordance withtheterms Licensing theCopyright Agency. orinthe caseofreprographic reproduction in 1988, Design andPatents Act, undertheCopyright, permitted as are allowed orreview, orcriticism inrespect ofany fair orstudy, ofprivate research dealingfor thepurposes exceptions ofGreen inwriting permission withouttheprior Alliance.Within theUK, any formorby any means, in ortransmitted, stored inaretrieval system, ofthispublication Nopart may bereproduced, reserved. All rights ISBN 978-1-905869-02-2 £5 © by www.seacourt.net Seacourt Designed andprinted onpaper with at least75%recycled content. and progress on the environment. facilitate dialogueandsecure new commitmentstoaction toencourageof themainpoliticalparties new ideas, We work tomake politics. environmental withrepresentatives inBritish charities solutionsapriority ofallthree For 28years weGreen haveAlliance isanindependentcharity. worked withbusinesses andotherenvironmental edited by Tracy Carty approaches totheenvironment reflections onnewConservative a greener shadeofblue? Green Alliance 2007 Green Alliance

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2 S3518 _ wayne h euymtes_44 _19 _16 _30 Rt HonOliver Letwin MP why beautymatters _38 Tom Burke accidents andachievements: theConservative environmental record _24 Charles Secrett the greening ofthe Tory rhetoricorreality? party: George OsborneMP looking aftertheenvironment, lookingaftertheeconomy _09 Nick Hurd MP the role ofthestate Rt HonJohnGummerMP paying theprice Rt HonDavidCameron MP improving ourenvironment: asocialresponsibility _02 Stephen Hale easier saidthandone:theecologicalchallengeforConservatism contents _ v5

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2 easier said than done: the ecological challenge for Conservatism Stephen Hale

Conservatism has been a distinct ideological strand the Conservative’s emerging approach to the in British political life for over two hundred years. environmental agenda, as well as the lessons of The environment was a significant element of recent history.We are grateful to all of them: David Conservative thought at the outset, as David Cameron himself, George Osborne, Oliver Letwin, a greener shade of blue? a greener Cameron notes in his contribution to this collection. John Gummer and Nick Hurd from the Conservative Party, and two eminent independent But the nature of the environmental challenge has environmentalists,Tom Burke and Charles Secrett. changed profoundly over that time.The astonishing Together they provide important insights and lessons speed of globalisation and economic development for those concerned with the Conservative’s future has brought a catalogue of environmental impacts approach. that threaten the foundations of our current and future prosperity, and pose a new and urgent This essay explores three issues: challenge for the philosophy and political parties of • the ideological challenge that the environment left and right. poses to modern Conservative thinking; • the approach proposed to that challenge by Even two years has proved to be a long time in contributors to this collection; and environmental politics. In that time, environmental • the lessons for the Conservatives of Labour’s issues have moved from the margins to the centre of experience in government. British politics and public debate.That process began with Tony Blair’s decision to make climate change a focus of the G8 Summit in 2005. But David Why are we doing this? Cameron has dramatically accelerated the pace of Green Alliance was established in 1979 with a change. He is the first leader of a major British mission to green British politics. Government policy political party to make the environment a central is naturally our primary pre-occupation. But we also theme of his leadership from the outset. Green focus on the environmental policies of both Alliance welcomes that. opposition parties, and have hosted speeches in recent times by Charles Kennedy, David Cameron and This pamphlet brings together an impressive set of his predecessor, Michael Howard. contributors to look much further ahead and explore S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 5

We have chosen to publish this collection on new A profound challenge for the right (and left) 3 Conservative approaches to the environment because The most urgent issue facing all parties is of course the discussion within the party is now entering a climate change, on which we must take decisive crucial phase, and David Cameron’s focus on the action globally within the next ten years. If we fail to environment has dramatically raised the stakes. After do so, Nicholas Stern’s report on the economics of ten years of a Labour government, it is clearer than climate change1 found that it could have a greater ever that speeches and exhortation alone do not economic impact than the last two world wars and deliver. A strong philosophical foundation and the great depression of the 1930s. It could reduce resolute political leadership are critical to driving global gross domestic product by as much as 20 per change across Whitehall and in society. cent, leaving aside the ecological and humanitarian impacts. It is a challenge that defies categorisation, All roads lead to the shadow cabinet with immense economic, social, shade of blue? a greener The policy commissions appointed by David security and development Cameron report in the summer of 2007.The implications. “ David Cameron’s appointment of Zac Goldsmith and John Gummer as focus on the co-chairs of the Quality of Life Commission has Above all, it is already an impending environment has raised hopes and expectations of this process in the human tragedy.To take just one dramatically environmental community. example, a two degree rise in global raised the stakes” temperatures would increase the area But there are of course six policy commissions.Their of Bangladesh annually affected by make-up is a reminder that David Cameron’s flooding by at least 25 per cent. Globally, the Conservative Party (like Tony Blair’s New Labour) is Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a very broad church. Despite efforts to build links estimates that it could create 200 million refugees by between them, their reports seem likely to provide a 2050. Climate change is not simply an full and often contradictory menu of approaches and environmental problem. specific proposals. But it is also not the only environmental problem. So all roads lead to the shadow cabinet, and the The urgent need for action on climate change is now small group of politicians and advisers who are the acknowledged across the British political spectrum, driving force behind Cameron’s Conservatives.They at least in principle. But the need for action on many will pull together a substantive response to the other issues is much less well understood. Current policy commissions for approval by the shadow patterns of economic life in the UK bring with them cabinet and publication in early 2008. It will be the a variety of other profound effects, from the first real opportunity to assess the prospects for destruction of the rainforests internationally to the environmental policy under a future Conservative loss of countryside to development in Britain and government. the public health effects of our addiction to the car. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 6

4 The underlying issue in all of these cases is the Conservative philosophy and the imperative to respect ecological limits. It has been environment the recurring theme of contemporary green David Cameron’s contribution to this collection thinking, though interpreted in many different ways. opens by arguing that “it is precisely because my It challenges the economic growth paradigm that political outlook is rooted in Conservatism that I am dominates mainstream thinking on both left and so passionate about the environment”. He is right to right.Their responses will vary. argue that there are synergies between the But both must find new ways Conservative and environmental agendas. Some “ the environmental case to meet our needs that respect should not be seen as forms of Conservatism have placed a strong global, national and local emphasis on preserving the commons and the a preserve of the environmental limits. common good, and taken a multi-generational a greener shade of blue? a greener left-liberal parties” perspective that accords a real weight to the legacy The modern environmental that we leave to future generations.The contribution agenda is associated more by Oliver Letwin to this collection, on the need to frequently with the left than the right. But the accord beauty a prominence in our political environmental case should not be seen as a preserve decision-making, draws on that heritage. of the left-liberal parties, for several reasons: • the global scale and complexity of the challenges But Conservatism is a broad intellectual philosophy. posed by climate disruption and other ‘tragedies The neo-liberal version of Conservatism that has had of the commons’ demand as much intellectual such a strong influence on American and British and political ingenuity and energy as we can Conservative thinking over the past thirty years has generate; proven very environmentally destructive. It has promoted ‘market forces’ to the detriment of • parties of the left have not been consistently communities and family life. It has tended to foster effective at developing solutions to environmental economic growth without a proper regard for the challenges, partly as a result of their roots in the environment, and to be reluctant to intervene in politics and economics of production and imperfect markets.There are notable exceptions of consumption; and most importantly course, but the dominant underlying ideology has • while the dominant strand in recent Conservative led to irreversible environmental damage. thinking has been highly damaging to the environment, there is a Conservative tradition David Cameron’s emerging philosophy of social that places a strong emphasis on stewardship of responsibility is a significant departure from this the land and the conservation of natural heritage. neo-liberal model. But it underpins a familiar call for a smaller state, in line with Conservative traditions and in contrast to what he argues is Labour’s overbearing statism. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 7

The big issue: the role of the state answers.” As he says, we need a step change in 5 Many environmentalists would challenge the personal and business commitment and action to application of this critique to Labour’s record in tackle climate change successfully. government.The environmental critics of the chancellor argue that he has intervened too little, not But it also includes signs of his recognition that this too much.The role of the state is the central issue does not imply downplaying the role of the state. that David Cameron must resolve if he is to develop Indeed, he goes some way to acknowledging that an approach to the environment that delivers in greater action by government will be essential to government. Does the environmental imperative enabling this individual and business action. He require greater state intervention and, if so, is there a argues that “…of all these responsibilities, the clear Conservative foundation for such action? greatest lies with government, which must give a

lead on the issue and set the shade of blue? a greener This is the focus of both David “ The neo-liberal version agenda.” Cameron’s and Nick Hurd’s of Conservatism that has contributions. Nick Hurd tackles George Osborne focuses on the some of the underlying had such a strong relationship between the ideological issues head on. He influence on American environment and the economy. He acknowledges the Conservative’s and British Conservative offers three reasons why instinctive scepticism of thinking over the past environmental policy can benefit the economy: it will help to government intervention, and thirty years has proven asks how a Conservative mitigate the damaging economic government can therefore deal very environmentally effects of climate change; energy with the urgent challenge of destructive” efficiency policies have economic climate change.This tension is benefits; and global environmental particularly pressing for Nick, markets offer significant who has argued that the UK should aim for an 80 employment opportunities.These provide a fairly per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. He limited platform for action. A more aggressive outlines what he sees as the key roles of the state and Conservative case for intervention has been made asks “to what degree are we prepared to champion elsewhere.2 As befits a shadow chancellor he is also the freedom of personal choice when those choices cautious about drawing policy conclusions, although impose a high cost on others?” he does outline the Conservative’s bold proposals for aviation taxation. David Cameron’s contribution explores similar territory. He sketches out the implications for The free market and global growth model has environmental policy of his philosophy of ‘social dominated the thinking of recent Conservative responsibility’. He rightly makes a virtue of the governments. Nicholas Stern memorably described observation that “the state does not have all the climate change as the greatest market failure that the S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 8

6 world has ever seen.There are clear signs here that So who moves first? Politicians of both left and right the Conservatives may be ready to tackle this. But it are wary of decisive state intervention and await is easier said than done.Their willingness to make greater evidence of corporate and public concern. specific policy commitments in opposition will Both emphasise that individuals and businesses must provide a more meaningful yardstick for predicting alter their behaviour and reduce their environmental their behaviour in government. footprint. But government leadership will be critical to persuading and enabling them to do so. Our Beyond the state: challenges to green democracy needs smarter ways to broker this thinking discussion. David Cameron is right to acknowledge the limits of state power and the crucial importance of the Beyond markets and climate change a greener shade of blue? a greener attitudes and actions of businesses and individuals. The remaining two Conservative contributions cover His analysis poses an important challenge to the different territory and provide important green movement. While some deep green thinking perspectives for a future Conservative government. aspires to small and self-reliant communities, the mainstream British environmental movement Oliver Letwin’s contribution builds on the need for consistently focuses on securing decisive action from politics and political decisions to take into account central government. the beauty of our natural and built environment, and takes on the critics of that position. It provides a Neither Labour nor the Conservatives look likely to valuable corrective to the dominance of the growth offer a vision of government of this kind. Despite model, and is a strong foundation for a different (or because of) the Conservative’s accusations, the approach. It chimes with perhaps the most chancellor now speaks of an “enabling” government intriguing sentence in this pamphlet; David and “the servant state.” Unless we can raise the Cameron’s pledge that “Greener living for public appetite for action, the communities, and better protection of our natural “ Their willingness to environment is not likely to environment will be crucial priorities for the make specific policy become the exception to the government I lead.” We await further details. commitments in rule of diminishing state intervention in markets.The John Gummer opens on similar territory, but goes opposition will provide environmental community must on to focus on another issue; the environmental case a more meaningful redouble its efforts to persuade for the Conservatives to take a positive approach to yardstick for predicting individuals, businesses and Europe. He puts his case clearly and forcefully, the Conservative others to act, if it is to trigger arguing, “There is no way in which we can solve the problems of pollution except at a European level.” Party’s behaviour in further decisive government intervention. government” David Cameron’s position on Europe now embraces this view. In his most recent major speech on S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 9

Europe, he described the environment as one of the First, political leadership from the centre is 7 three key areas for common European action. But he absolutely critical.The silos of Whitehall defeat any makes the case for common action from a position effort to deliver that is not driven from the very top. of virtual isolation, having announced his intention Tony Blair did not provide that until very late on. He to split from the European People’s Party to form a had not made the personal political commitment as new partnership with the leader of the opposition that Cameron (climate change denying) Czech “ political leadership has chosen to do. Civic Democrat party. from the centre is absolutely critical” Second, a commitment to the Lessons from recent history environment needs to be shared across We can all learn from our both government and party.This was a histories.The contributions here from Charles Secrett constraint for Blair in 1997, and one that David shade of blue? a greener and Tom Burke show that the Conservatives can Cameron currently shares. A truly ‘sustainable’ view certainly do so. David Cameron has done so very of the environment is not in the DNA of either party. publicly in other areas, expressing regret for the So Cameron must win hearts and minds in the approach taken by the last Conservative government parliamentary party and beyond. Many Conservatives to social justice in Britain and to the apartheid at both local and national level remain publicly regime in South Africa. sceptical or hostile to this agenda. For proof of that, look no further than the minimalist approach He has not publicly repudiated their record on the outlined in the 2007 Scottish Conservative Party environment. But there are important lessons to be manifesto. learnt from the retrospective analysis offered by Tom and Charles, in public or private.Their criticisms, Third, it is critical to take decisive action from the and occasional praise, need not be repeated here. But outset.The time lag between action and outcome is they are essential reading for those aiming to do painfully long. It takes several years to establish better. initiatives and policies that alter the framework for decisions by “ Cameron must win Labour’s experience in government since 1997 also businesses and individuals and hearts and minds in offers vital lessons for the Conservatives. Hopes were deliver visible changes for people the parliamentary and the environment.The high in many quarters for Labour’s environmental party and beyond” policy. Labour had raised expectations through their trajectory of carbon emissions is policy document, which included the now un- particularly difficult to shift within achievable pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 20 a single parliament. per cent by 2010.3 The 1997 manifesto promised to put the environment at the heart of government. Fourth, and most importantly, Labour’s experience Things feel rather different now. In retrospect, four proves that change and success is only possible if lessons emerge. new initiatives and policies are brought forward in S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 10

8 ways that deepen public support for action and open It is early days.The Conservatives in opposition are up political space for future action. Labour lacked a making an influential contribution to public debate clear political strategy and has been deterred by on the environment.They will only succeed in unanticipated public reaction on issues such as fuel government if they tackle these five issues.The duty.There is no space here to think through the environmental movement has been disappointed nature and sequencing of such an approach. But before.The response to the policy commissions in such planning must be done in opposition, in early 2008 will be the first real opportunity to assess conversation with civil society groups who can help the prospects for a future Conservative government. I to build public support for action. look forward to reading it.

Conclusions Stephen Hale is Director of Green Alliance. a greener shade of blue? a greener David Miliband has consistently infuriated his Conservative counterparts by asserting that Labour’s values and collective instincts are the only possible foundation for effective action on climate change.The Conservative “ values alone are contributions to this collection offer an not enough” alternative basis for action. But experience since 1997 confirms that values alone are not enough.There are five critical challenges that the Conservatives must tackle to establish their credibility in opposition, and confidence that they would deliver in government. They must: • establish a strong and public intellectual foundation for government intervention; • develop an environmental strategy that incorporates the natural environment and greener living, as well as climate change; • identify in opposition their proposals for early action in government; • rethink their isolationist approach to European politics; and • develop a political strategy that builds public commitment and action alongside their plans for policy action. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 11

improving our environment: a social responsibility 9

Rt Hon David Cameron MP

For the first time in British politics, a major political Therefore, Conservatism is partly about the party has given the environment equal billing conservation of the best our country has to offer: alongside economic and social matters. When I institutions such as parliamentary democracy and became leader of the Conservative Party just over a common law for example. Another important part of year ago, I wanted to take that opportunity to push our inheritance is our collective environment. Right

the protection of our environment right to the top now, in an affront to our ancestors and to the shade of blue? a greener of the political agenda. I recognised then, as I still do neglect of our descendants, we are threatening that now, that those on the left would legacy. Our generation will rightly dismiss it as a gimmick. I also “ It is precisely because be judged by its response. recognised that those on the right would subject me to open my political outlook is There are other reasons why criticism and sometimes rooted in Conservatism Conservatism and the environment vilification. In doing so, both that I am so passionate agenda go hand-in-hand. seemed to be asking the same about the environment” Conservatives believe in social question: what can a Conservative order and security, and it is bring to the environment debate? obvious that our continued reckless disregard for our planet endangers this. I am always surprised by this question. It is precisely Second, we are optimistic about society’s ability to because my political outlook is rooted in meet this challenge. We believe that competitive Conservatism that I am so passionate about the economics has the potential to produce innovation environment. Writing in the late 18th century, and scientific progress that can turn tackling climate Edmund Burke, the father of Conservative thought, change from a threat to an opportunity. described history as “a pact between the dead, the living and the yet unborn.” Put another way, we “ we are optimistic about cannot just think of ourselves as actors in an isolated society’s ability to meet moment of time, but instead as guardians and purveyors of a vital inheritance. Guardians, in that this challenge” we have inherited it from previous generations, and purveyors in that we have a responsibility to pass it on to future generations. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 12

10 Third, and most crucially, we “ Conservatives have a environment agenda because we have understand that the state vital role to play in the the right solution: social responsibility. does not have all the environment agenda answers. All of mankind because we have the Social responsibility sums up my must take responsibility for right solution: social political worldview. It is central to my climate change and all of vision of Britain. It is a Britain where mankind must make responsibility” we do not just ask what government sacrifices in combating it. can do, but we ask what people and society can do. A Britain where we realise that we These are simple words to use but, if applied have responsibilities, not just to ourselves, but also a correctly, they will result in a fundamental culture social responsibility to each other.

a greener shade of blue? a greener change in attitudes to our environment and our ability to protect it. In order to protect the environment, there are four key responsibilities. Government has a responsibility We have already made the first important step. I am to establish the framework, businesses to employ proud of the Conservative Party’s role in making the corporate responsibility, local communities to green agenda a central part of our political discourse. inculcate a culture of civic responsibility and Scientists, politicians, economists, business leaders, individuals to assume personal responsibility.And and the general public: the past year has seen the because the Conservatives understand the boundaries development of a remarkable consensus and of government, how business works, the value of transformed environmentalism from being a niche localism and the importance of individual freedom, concern to a mainstream part of our political debate. we are best placed to effect that cultural change, which is imperative if we are to protect our Now, we need to make the leap from mainstream environment. culture to decisive and resolute action. And for this to happen, we must make sure everyone changes Of all these responsibilities, the greatest lies with their behaviour and plays their part. government, which must give a lead on the issue and set the agenda.This means establishing a We should not be naïve about how difficult this will framework that sets a long-term price for carbon, be. We must recognise that we will be fighting a incentivising green behaviour by taxing the bad and basic human instinct to satisfy our every want with a rewarding the good, and working hard to bring in lack of concern for the consequences. other countries from around the world to commit to similar schemes. Such a long term price for carbon But if we are to succeed, we cannot afford to hand will make it easier for business to act and for over the agenda to those who believe that old, statist consumers to respond and change their behaviour methods of compulsion are the answer. and choices. Conservatives have a vital role to play in the S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 13

Setting a long term price for carbon will be made burden of taxation on those things that damage our 11 easier by annual binding targets for carbon environment as a replacement for other taxes. reduction. In this respect, it looks as if the In his 2006 Pre-Budget Report, the chancellor’s government’s Climate Change Bill will be a cop-out. increase in air passenger duty, without alleviating the They are proposing to set carbon emissions targets tax burden elsewhere, was simply taxation by stealth. for every decade, despite the fact that in each of their This only gives green taxes a bad name, and will not last three manifestos they failed on a similar help to change the cultural perception that ‘going commitment to reduce emissions by 20 per cent by green’ is painful and an infringement economically. 2010. The Conservative’s aim is not to increase the tax Only annual targets will provide the accountability burden on hard working families but to rebalance

that is desperately required and help us to reduce taxation so that the polluter pays and the non shade of blue? a greener our emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, in line with polluter pays less. It’s time to move taxes from the present recommendations of the income and investment to pollution – pay as you Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.They burn, not pay as you earn. will create a price for carbon in our economy, meaning that things that produce more carbon will What’s more, we should be careful of a totemic become more expensive.This in turn will spur approach, where we target air travel or 4x4s without innovation in the UK production of low carbon thinking about the bigger picture of transport policy. products, which are the stuff of the emerging low At the moment, there are 48 flights every day from carbon economic boom that we want the UK to be London to Manchester.This may seem crazy, but we at the forefront of. need to recognise that people need to be offered an alternative to flying and driving. And establishing the right framework of accountability means establishing an Independent Currently, a walk-on return ticket on a plane Climate Change Commission, that checks progress between London and Manchester will cost at most on these targets, and the environment secretary £179, compared to £219 for a standard open return publishing a Carbon Budget Report. by rail. Coupled with the fact that train carriages are often full to bursting, we can However, targets alone are not see why passengers are deterred enough. Delivery on these targets is “ …targets alone are not from using the more what really matters, and this will enough. Delivery on environmentally-friendly involve tough and difficult decisions. these targets is what option. In this respect, the government really matters, and this should take a lead in effecting a will involve tough and We need a twin-track approach: change in the behaviour of everyone making the costs of carbon clear in this country by increasing the difficult decisions” while at the same time investing S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 14

12 in and offering a clear substitute. Only this will In the United States, there is a new generation of precipitate the cultural shift that is necessary to political leaders who want to assume the mantle of tackle climate change. environmentalism. Like me, Senators Hilary Clinton and John McCain have both been on fact-finding Government also has one other crucial responsibility missions to Svalbard to see for themselves the – to assume leadership globally.The common melting of the polar ice caps. And Senator Jeff argument of sceptics is that there is little point in Bingham, chairman of the Senate Committee on acting alone if we cannot guarantee the involvement Energy and Natural Resources, predicted that climate of our economic competitors in China and the change and the reduction of greenhouse gases will United States. be at the forefront of issues tackled by Congress in 2007.

a greener shade of blue? a greener But it is only through showing leadership domestically that we can apply the moral pressure Now is surely the time to intensify the search for an abroad.There is an old Chinese proverb: “Tell me effective, equitable international agreement to and I will forget. Show me, and I will remember.” I succeed the current Kyoto targets in 2012. Any am confident that future future agreement should include setting binding “ Assuming leadership international agreement can be targets for the developed world, whilst encouraging internationally also attained if we first act nationally, China, India, both of them parties to Kyoto already, means working with locally and individually. and other rapidly developing nations to adopt lower carbon pathways to growth. our partners in the Sceptics also misunderstand the European Union and profound changes that these Assuming leadership internationally also means with the European countries are undergoing. Farmers working with our partners in the European Union Commission” in China have rioted and held and with the European Commission. I have demonstrations over pollution repeatedly said that this is an opportunity for a damaging their crops, and last year forward looking and positive agenda in Europe, but the Chinese government spent three per cent of its instead of naval gazing over issues such as the gross domestic product on green measures, much of constitution we should be focusing on our collective it related to carbon emissions. What’s more, China is responsibility towards the planet and re-enforcing one of the world’s poorest countries in terms of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. resources per capita and they introduced laws this year that aim to double the use of alternative sources So government has a massive responsibility to set the of energy.Already their vehicle emissions standards framework for carbon trading, encourage green are higher than those in the United States. growth through fiscal incentives and push for international agreement on global targets. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 15

But I want to put down another marker. A greener Corporate responsibility means businesses adhering 13 future may start with the vital need to tackle climate to best practice.The quid pro quo here is that if they change, but it does not end there: we need a greener do the right thing, government will interfere less. It’s earth as well as greener skies. a simple bargain. We’ll expect business to do its bit by moving away from Today, some 15,590 different species “ A greener future may carbon-heavy sources of are known to be threatened with energy and reducing the extinction. Of course, species have start with the vital need amount of energy they use come and gone during the evolution to tackle climate change, in the first place. And, of of life on earth, but scientists now but it does not end there: course, government must agree that the extinction rate has risen we need a greener earth support them in doing that by at least 100 per cent since the as well as greener skies” by providing the market shade of blue? a greener industrial revolution. That’s not some changes and long term accident; it is our doing. certainty that they need.

As with climate change, this unconsidered cull of I am an avowed believer that open markets and our natural inheritance has implications that reach competition are the most commanding drivers of well beyond our generation. Losing biodiversity is change on the planet, and I believe that business can about closing down options.This is not just the and must be an enormous force for good in our pleasure we take from the natural environment, but world. options – many perhaps yet to be discovered – about health, scientific discovery, medicine and food Using their expertise, dynamism and creativity, we security. should be optimistic about the development of a new generation of environmentally-friendly products Greener living for communities and better and sources of energy.That is real green growth – protection of our natural environment will be crucial using the power of markets to dictate future priorities for the government I lead.This means innovation and progress. addressing issues such as the pollution of land and rivers and striking a better balance between development and conservation in our planning “ open markets and competition are the most system. commanding drivers of change on the planet, and I believe that business can and must be But I am a Conservative, and I do not believe that government has all the answers and must assume all an enormous force for good in our world” the responsibility.We all have a responsibility to do our bit. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 16

14 For example, new environmental technologies are turn it into biodiesel, to drive council and hospital bringing massive hope to Britain’s farming vehicles. And Runnymede Council runs a school bus community: biomass crops and biogas to provide scheme with local businesses to cut rush hour heat and electricity; and combined heat and power congestion and reduce emissions. to make us more energy efficient. Farmers can play a leading role in the technologies of the future. Personal responsibility means us all playing our part, however small, to make a difference. A recent poll in Instead of being left behind, the Conservatives want The Times stated that 75 per cent of people recycled to see Britain lead the green economic revolution everything they could – yet this is not played out by just as it did the industrial revolution. the facts.This shows that there is a desire to do the right thing, but not often the chance to do so.

a greener shade of blue? a greener Civic responsibility means communities standing up and taking a role in preserving their local The Conservatives have always been the party to environments. I understand that environmental match aspiration with opportunity through concerns will be a lost cause if we cannot get people empowerment and not compulsion. Setting the to connect with the direct framework outlined above would give consequences of their actions. “ The Conservatives people the opportunity to do what And, as a Conservative, I they believe is right. recognise that this will be best have always been the achieved through drawing on party to match It is incredibly empowering for people’s attachment to their aspiration with individuals to know that they can local community. opportunity through make a difference right now by using empowerment and not energy-efficient light bulbs or Sceptics need only look at the recycling their household waste. And response to the Conservative compulsion” in the long-term, this could involve Party’s local election campaign catching the train to work, investing of May 2005, when we told people to ‘Vote Blue, Go in green energy or purchasing the latest Green’. Few said it would work, but it was the environmentally-friendly products. bulwark of a successful campaign because it chimed with the aspirations of so many people for a cleaner, The Conservative Party has placed green issues right greener future. at the heart of the political debate. We have a great team, including Peter Ainsworth, Greg Barker, John And there is so much that can be done. For example, Gummer, Zac Goldsmith and a host of other Barnet Council is setting a new target for waste committed environmentalists, who are working to recycling – up from 32 per cent today to 40 per cent find the best solutions to meet the challenges posed by 2011. Bromley Council is pioneering a project to by climate change. collect used cooking oils from local restaurants and S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 17

We all realise that there is cause for great optimism 15 and we want to recapture climate change from the pessimists. Of course it presents huge challenges. Of course the issues are complex. Of course it will require us to change. But when I think about climate change and our response to it, I don’t think of doom and gloom, costs and sacrifice. I think of a cleaner, greener world for our children to enjoy and inherit. I think of the almost unlimited power of innovation, the new technologies, the new products and services, and the progress they can bring for our

planet and all mankind. And I think of the exciting shade of blue? a greener possibilities that may seem a distant dream today – changing the way we live to improve our quality of life.

David Cameron is a Member of Parliament for Witney and Leader of the Conservative Party. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 18

16 paying the price

Rt Hon John Gummer MP

Environmental policy must not be subsumed into a what is priceable – what we earn, the things we fight against global warming.Yet that is the danger as own, and the capital and materials we use – and the world becomes increasingly concerned about the what we acknowledge to be priceless. effects of greenhouse gases. Climate change is but a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself. If we Pricing the common good merely treat the symptom, the underlying cancer What is new to us all is the realisation that there is a greener shade of blue? a greener will remain.The central fact is that there is a cancer another category of really big things on which we eating away at the vitals of the planet.That cancer is do not put a price.They have been raided by humans rooted in mankind’s failure properly to value the with no account taken of their cost. It is only now, resources that sustain us. In this sense, it is market when that cost has mounted until it endangers our failure on a colossal scale that bedevils our lives. ability to live on the planet, that we have taken fright at the enormity of our debt.The air we breathe, the It seems part of the human condition that we can sea that surrounds us, the rivers and aquifers that put a price on everything except the things that provide our water, the forests that affect our climate, really matter.We have always recognised that truth the soils and the fish – everything that we hold in when it is applied to an common.These we take for granted as an unpriced “ it is market failure on a individual’s health of the body, given in the equation of life. colossal scale that mind, and spirit. We say that love, health, happiness, bedevils our lives” And it is an equation. Life depends on the contentment and so many other continuance of the complex interconnection of non material concepts are things – an interconnection which the hole in the ‘priceless’. Even so, we usually take them for ozone layer and global warming have thrown into granted, to be noticed only in their absence. Then sharp relief. Who would have thought that my action their priceless importance becomes all too clear. in using shaving foam in the morning would be capable of challenging the integrity of the We understand that these goods are truly outside our atmosphere? One of my ministerial team at the pricing structure. We have learned to live with that Department of the Environment, to this day, finds it but we recognise the conflicts it imposes: in our impossible to accept that all those tiny sources of struggle for a work/life balance; our realisation of ozone-depleting chemicals could possibly gather the need to ‘work at a marriage’; and our modern together with sufficient force and concentration to concern with ‘well-being’.These are considerations create that hole! which attempt to deal with the mismatch between S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 19

individual people. All of those Communality and individualism “ we are all 17 Therein lies the real problem.The individualism that changes will derive from our learning has made life so much better for so many people has again that we are all interdependent interdependent also meant that we have unlearned what tribal and our choices and our actions must and our choices societies and village communities knew so well. We reflect that. and our actions find it very hard to accept that our private must reflect that” consumption, our personal morality, or our Society’s role individual actions can, outside that very narrow Nonetheless, we have to be organised. category of things described by law, have an Local, national, regional, and global institutions – important effect on the health of the world as a public and private – have to create the conditions in whole. Indeed, it is part of the trouble with which it is easiest for us to act and consume in a globalisation that it makes the individual feel that his way which recognises the value of all the planet’s shade of blue? a greener actions do not matter because they can’t change resources and safeguards them. Accepting our things. We talk about the global village but we individual responsibility for the common good haven’t relearned what the village knew – the huge doesn’t mean that we don’t also recognise the value effect that each one of us has on society as a whole. of corporate action. Indeed, once we understand the My friend, the ex-minister, would agree that he interrelation of all things and the pervasive nature of poisoned the water for everyone if he peed in the the eco-system, the case for common action swimming pool – it is the becomes irresistible. Our individual sheer size of the globe that “ the sheer size of the responsibility is to act in concert. After makes it hard for us to take all, our misuse, wastage and pollution is individual responsibility for globe makes it hard for common, as well as individual. actions that, in aggregate, us to take individual threaten our very existence. responsibility for And it goes beyond our national actions that, in confines. We in the UK have dirtied the So, if we define our global aggregate, threaten air of Britain but half that pollution we problem as the misuse, export to the rest of Europe and half of wastage, and pollution of our very existence” the pollution we have here has come our unpriced resources, we over from the continent. There is no have to accept that it is a way in which we can solve the problems problem caused by individuals – albeit by billions of of pollution except at a European level.There is no them, living and dead. So, saying that we have a place for the UK Independence Party in global problem and, therefore, that it demands a environmental politics.That perhaps explains why so global solution is true, but only partly true. Just as many of them remain climate change deniers. the global problem is the result of the sum of Selfish, xenophobic individualism won’t solve individual actions, so the global solution will environmental problems that do not respect national depend on billions of small changes by billions of boundaries. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 20

18 Europe leads To say that, does not invalidate individual, However, all of this does demand that we look communal, local, or national action. All of these have beyond the crisis caused by climate change and an essential part to play, but the context in which concentrate on its cause. Global warming has they play it has to be determined on a European happened because human beings have failed to value level. For example, HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) are properly what most matters in the planet that chemicals with 2,000 times the global warming sustains us. Only by paying the price that will sustain potential of carbon dioxide. Many companies have our environment can we hope to survive. already recognised that they should not be used. They ought to be banned but one country on its John Gummer is a Member of Parliament for Suffolk own cannot do it.Together, Europe is big enough a Coastal and is Co-Chairman of the Conservative Quality a greener shade of blue? a greener market for refrigeration and air conditioning to of Life Commission. insist and the world will follow.A recent article in The Wall Street Journal revealed how European environmental leadership was increasingly setting the agenda in the United States. “ we can use the American companies are finding extent and reach of themselves forced to follow that lead the European Union and, as a result, although often begrudgingly, the United States to change the way in government will ultimately follow which the world’s suit. commerce works” So, although we need new global institutions to universalise the drive to value the world’s resources properly, the means to get the project under way are already in place. We can recover individual and local responsibility for our resource use. We can achieve and extend that by a regulatory and incentivising regime laid down by government “ Global warming has and parliament. And we can make that competitively possible by happened because using the extent and reach of the human beings have European Union to change the failed to value properly way in which the world’s what most matters” commerce works. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 21

the role of the state 19

Nick Hurd MP

It is argued that little divides the two major parties • to what degree are we prepared to champion the in British politics. Under the respective leaderships freedom of personal choice when those choices of David Cameron and Gordon Brown, this impose a high cost on others? argument will look increasingly redundant. Already, a • what is a Conservative vision of the role that the key dividing line is being established around the role European Union (EU) can play, given our of the state. At the 2006 Conservative Party traditionally eurosceptic position? conference, David Cameron spelt it out. His shade of blue? a greener leadership will be defined by the concept of social In fact, this contribution will argue that the right responsibility, which is to be contrasted with the policy response to the challenge of serious climate commitment of a Brown administration to instability is rooted in principles and instincts that command and control politics from the centre. are distinctively Conservative: Since then, the Conservative leadership has made • the central role of government is to set a clear another important statement by supporting so and credible framework. Once the limits have explicitly the Sustainable Communities Bill been set, the government should leave us free to (promoted by the author of this piece), whose main make our own choices and focus on making it as driver is a desire to see local communities have easy as possible for us to make the changes. much greater influence over the sustainable Rather than preach and complicate, it should development of their communities. persuade and simplify. We cannot rely on politicians but have to develop a sense of social, This positioning is a welcome reaffirmation of shared responsibility. Rather than impose traditional Conservative scepticism about the degree solutions from the centre, we should be looking to which we should rely on central government to to empower people to find out what is right meet the challenges of the day. But how does this fit for them. with arguably the biggest challenge – managing the • the market is the most cost effective way to drive risk of serious climate instability? behaviour change and raise standards – but For the Conservative Party, the climate change issue markets can be imperfect and it falls to could be seen as raising some demanding questions: • to what degree are we prepared to leave it to the “ The central role of market when the market fails to put a price on government is to set a clear the damage we do to the natural capital on and credible framework” which we depend? S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 22

20 government to correct market failures.The disaster. It is also about the opportunity to reduce priority now is to ensure that the market puts a our energy bills and improve our security, improve fair value on carbon. Our freedom to choose health outcomes, reduce the need to travel, improve needs to be based on proper prices. the local environment, deliver more fairness in the world and more job and profit opportunities in • there is no national solution to climate change Britain. In short, this journey can be towards a better and Britain’s contribution must be set in the quality of life and a more competitive economy. context of a credible international settlement.The EU has shown leadership on the environment The government needs to think about how to frame and is well placed to lead an international an ongoing communication strategy that coalition of the ambitious towards the key demonstrates these positive outcomes and links them settlement.This is what the EU is meant to be – a a greener shade of blue? a greener to reducing emissions, so that there is a collective force for peace, prosperity, and effective sense of ‘we would want to be doing this anyway’. cooperation on the issues that cross borders. A party that is sceptical about the value of monetary and political union should welcome The right destination this opportunity for the EU to redefine its If the government is to set the direction of travel, it relevance to a new generation. needs to know the right destination. When it comes to managing the risk of serious climate instability, Get the framework right the politics must fit the science and not the other In the last nine years, government rhetoric on way round.The Conservative Quality of Life policy climate change has been undermined by group believes that it is wrong to give up on the inconsistent, overcomplicated and often incompetent chance to limit global temperature increase to 2°C policy implementation at home, as well as the versus pre-industrial levels.The most credible widely acknowledged ambivalence of Gordon Brown analysis, not least the Stern and Intergovernmental and the Treasury. As a result, emissions have actually Panel on Climate Change reports, tells us that the risen since 1997 and there is little credibility around risks and costs rise substantially above that threshold. the voluntary short and long term targets. A step Our understanding of the most robust science change of ambition is required, which needs to be available today tells us that the appropriate long term supported by greater clarity of purpose and stabilisation target range for carbon dioxide competence in delivery. atmospheric concentration is 400 – 450 parts per million carbon dioxide-equivalent, rather than the 450 – 550 parts per million cited by the Stern Get the frame right report. Consequently, we believe that the UK goal of Climate change policy needs to be framed in a way a 60 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050 is that persuades the broadest possible coalition that it likely to prove inadequate and that developed is in our interest to start reducing our emissions countries, or states within countries, will be obliged now. It does not have to be just about averting S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 23

to follow California in considering how we can has been a comprehensive “ If the government is to 21 reduce emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050, at failure in terms of reducing set the direction of the minimum cost to our prosperity and quality of emissions or driving travel, it needs to know life. innovation.The failure has the right destination… been a political one in that a A better process for setting limits cap and trade scheme is only the UK goal of a 60 per Under pressure from the opposition, the as good as the cap, negotiated cent reduction in government has agreed to a Climate Change Bill that in this instance by national emissions by 2050 is has the potential to radically improve the way in governments. likely to prove which targets are set and performance accounted for. inadequate” A statutory medium term target is particularly It is for governments to important for shaping the key investment decisions correct that failure and send a shade of blue? a greener that will be taken over the next 15 years in replacing signal to the market about how the scheme will our energy generation infrastructure, and which will evolve to deliver a significant and sustainable price shape our ability to meet long term goals. A better for carbon beyond 2012.That evolution should process for setting targets needs to be matched by a include a ratcheting down of free allowances to more profound reform of departments, agencies and pollute in favour of more auctions. Political risk regulators so that the state is much more effective in should be reduced by the development of a the way that it coordinates its response to this most consistent and transparent methodology for complex of political challenges. determining caps, based on absolute emission reductions, and allocating any allowances. Process is no substitute for policy though, which should be focused on putting a fair value on carbon A mosaic of emissions trading schemes is being and stitching it into the economics of daily, global created around the world. If the mechanism proves life. to be effective in reducing emissions, then governments can play a useful role in facilitating the Put a fair value on carbon linkage of carbon markets to maximise depth and liquidity, by encouraging a common set of design Emissions trading standards and scaling up mechanisms such as the To date, emissions trading appears to have emerged clean development mechanism. as the policy tool of choice over the concept of a carbon tax, which would be simpler and raise more Constructive regulation by outcome money for government but arguably lacks the The decarbonisation of any developed economy will certainty and cost efficiency potential of a cap and require a transformation in the energy efficiency trade scheme.The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU standards of the products we rely on, from the car to ETS) is the most mature scheme but, while its first the kettle.To achieve this transformation, phase has been helpful in testing the mechanics, it S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 24

22 government must shake conservative industries out subsidies amount to approximately $235 billion a of their comfort zones by taking a more radical and year. Diverting a small fraction of that money to simple approach to regulation.The role of renewable energy, carbon capture and storage or government should be to set the desired outcome promoting energy efficiency would make an and a timetable for achievement. It should not be in enormous difference. Every year the government the business of telling industries how to do it.The gives some £6 to £8 in fossil fuel subsidies for every Conservative instinct is to leave £1 to support clean and renewable energy, and a that to the market: confident that typical British taxpayer pays at least £1,000 a year to “ The role of competitive pressure will stimulate fund perverse subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. government should the innovation that we need.The Surely it is time to bury the past and invest in be to set the desired construction industry, for example, conserving the future? a greener shade of blue? a greener outcome and a should be set free from a web of timetable for complex regulations telling them The Treasury has been extraordinarily complacent in how to build and simply face the the face of opportunities to send stronger signals achievement” requirement of delivering through the tax system.The Climate Change Levy buildings to a set of required needs to be turned from a tax on energy into a tax standards.They will then compete that incentivises lower carbon choices. Air passenger more aggressively to achieve the outcome in the duty is an inefficient tax that sends no most efficient way, and that will be good for environmental signal and should be recast as an customers and good for the industry. explicit green tax. Why do we tinker around with vehicle excise duty when we can send really Show government is serious powerful price signals through vehicle sales tax? In the first place, government must be seen to lead Why do we still not have an aggressive tax incentive by example. Within realistic timescales the real estate for people to insulate their homes, when all the and asset base of the public sector should set the evidence suggests that this one single action can standard for energy efficiency.A public make such a big impact? procurement budget of £150 billion a year needs to be leveraged more “ Every year the Finally, government must be aggressively in favour of pushing government gives seen to take a consistent suppliers towards reducing their carbon some £6 to £8 in approach across the big intensity. strategic policy issues. A fossil fuel subsidies government which plans for every £1 to Stronger signals should be sent by the extensive house building on investment priorities of government. A support clean and flood plains and adopts a 2004 report from the New Economics renewable energy” predict and provide approach Foundation claims that global fossil fuel to the fastest growing source of emissions (aviation) will S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 25

struggle to persuade people that it is serious about international agreement on climate change that does 23 the journey towards a low carbon future. not compromise our national interest.

Help people make low carbon choices The UN dialogue is the right vehicle for the final The information landscape needs de-cluttering so agreement but that process is cumbersome and that people can get easy access to objective advice on proceeds at the pace of the least willing.The show what will make a difference and work for them. must be kept on the road, but there is a need to High impact actions need to be identified and the build a coalition of the ambitious and the significant incentives aligned to make that action not just easy number of people who see it as being in their national interest to take a more but absolutely compelling for the largest number of “ we will not take the people. A useful precedent would be the way in effective lead. It is right for which a Conservative government prepared the Britain to seek a leadership role British people with us shade of blue? a greener transition from leaded to unleaded petrol. in that process but we cannot unless they feel they go it alone.The most effective are part of a collective position for us is as the Last but not least local government, who have been international effort” the agents of change in terms of attitudes to backbone of the EU; pushing it recycling, should have greater freedom and resources to lead the coalition of the to innovate and engage their communities with the ambitious: driving the reform of the EU ETS as the opportunity to reduce carbon. stepping stone towards a global carbon market; and leveraging the single market to deliver a revolution Secure international agreement in product standards and a scaling up of the markets for low carbon technology. Such a constructive view There is no national solution to climate change. of the EU’s role is quite consistent with traditional Therefore, in the context of managing climate risk, Conservative messages of scepticism about the value there are necessarily two dimensions to the role of of single currencies and constitutions. More effective government: home and abroad. Both are important cooperation on the big issues that cross borders is and are interconnected in a complex way.We have what Europe is meant to be about. A Conservative reached the stage where international leadership can government committed to getting Europe to work only be built on a credible domestic track record, an on climate change would be helping the EU redefine awkward point for a British government that has its relevance to a new generation. presided over a rise in emissions since 1997. However, we will not take the British people with us Nick Hurd is a Member of Parliament for Ruislip- on the journey unless they feel they are part of a Northwood, a Board Member of the Conservative Quality collective international effort. of Life Commission and convenes the Commission’s A critical role for government therefore lies in working group on climate change. contributing to the development of a credible S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 26

24 looking after the environment, looking after the economy George Osborne MP

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges that man-made pollution. Carbon dioxide emissions have we face. Unfortunately, as environmental increased from 6 billion tonnes a year in 1950 to 24 campaigners have argued, the Labour government billion tonnes a year in 2004 – a significant driver has proved to be incapable of rising to this of rising temperatures. a greener shade of blue? a greener challenge. With emissions higher today than in 1997, and even Tony Blair’s own environmental The scientific consensus is that this level of pollution adviser describing his policies as “muddle-headed”, is unsustainable. With greenhouse gases now at their it’s clear that a new direction is needed.4 highest levels for 650,000 years, studies suggest that we may be approaching a climate change tipping The Conservative Party is committed to providing point. that new direction, both by setting out clear leadership on green issues, as well as by developing Researchers at Tomsk State and Oxford universities innovative policies to cut emissions, tackle have found that a million square kilometres of environmental degradation and promote green permafrost in western Siberia – an area the size of growth. France and Germany combined – has started to melt for the first time in over 10,000 years. If left It’s clear that action to address climate change is unchecked, this process could release billions of urgently needed. As the Stern report has shown, the tonnes of methane into the atmosphere, rapidly rate and scale of 20th century temperature increases accelerating the rate of climate change, with is unparalleled in recorded human history. Globally, dramatic consequences for life on our planet. the ten hottest years ever experienced have all taken place since 1994.The high temperatures we Environmental groups have long been aware that experienced last year, amongst the warmest ever winning the battle against climate change means first recorded in Britain, could be commonplace within of all winning the battle of ideas. Working alongside fifty years and unusually cool by the end of the green activists, the Conservative Party is playing its century. part. As newspapers revealed recently, before David Cameron became Conservative leader, Mr Brown But just as the reality of climate change is now mentioned the word ‘climate’ only 11 times – an almost universally recognised, so too is the cause: average of once per year. By contrast, under S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 27

pressure from David Cameron, Mr Brown made drought has doubled over the past 30 years, and the 25 reference to ‘climate’ 15 times in his 2006 Budget changing climate is predicted to reduce African gross alone, and has since continued to emphasise his domestic product by 10 per cent in the years ahead. green credentials. Climate change may also alter the patterns of the But helping to push environmental issues up the Indian monsoon, which could have a huge impact political agenda isn’t enough. We are also committed on the lives of hundreds of millions of people in to taking on those who seek to undermine the case South-East Asia. Weak monsoons, for example, could for green policies. Some of the most vocal opponents lead to poor harvests and food shortages among the of environmental action are those who claim that rural population of India. Heavier-than-usual tackling climate change will inevitably damage the monsoon downpours also have devastating

economy.As one commentator recently claimed, consequences, as shown by the flooding in Mumbai shade of blue? a greener environmental policies could have an economic last year, when more than 500 people perished. effect that is “worse than a 5 recession.” “ Some of the most Second, using energy efficiently doesn’t just have an environmental This view is deeply misguided. vocal opponents of benefit; it can also reduce energy bills Here are three reasons why. environmental action at a time of higher oil prices. As smart are those that claim companies all over the world are First, unchecked climate change that tackling climate recognising, this means that investing could have a massive negative change will inevitably in energy efficiency can help boost economic impact. As the Stern profitability. report has shown, the extreme damage the weather conditions caused by economy….This view The CEO of Walmart recently noted global warming could cost the is deeply misguided” that improving the fuel efficiency of UK economy billions of pounds the company’s distribution vehicles by over the course of this century. just one mile per gallon would save The Thames barrier, originally planned to be raised over $50 million a year – a useful advantage in a once every six years, is now being raised six times a competitive market. year. If one flood breaks through, it could cost London upwards of £30 billion – a cost which is Similarly, BT has introduced energy saving and indeed “worse than a recession”. energy efficiency programmes that have reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent from 1991 Of course, it’s not just Britain that will be affected. levels. Not only has this been good for the The economic effects of climate change will reach environment, it’s been good for the bottom line too: far beyond our shores, affecting some of the most BT estimates that it has resulted in energy savings of vulnerable people in the world.The incidence of over £100 million. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 28

26 These benefits are not confined to large businesses. It is Japanese and American companies, not British Research by Envirowise estimates that UK businesses ones, that are leading the world in the field of fuel could increase profits by as much as £1,000 per cells. British firms are also falling behind German employee if their waste was eliminated at source, and Swedish companies in the development and sale rather than being dealt with through disposal or of wind turbine technologies. recycling. In total, UK firms have less than a five per cent share The third economic of the global market for green goods and services – “ the global market for argument for green policies less than France, Germany, Japan and the United new environmental is that the global market for States.This means that Britain is missing out on technologies represents new environmental crucial jobs, investment and revenues and, of course, a greener shade of blue? a greener an important opportunity technologies represents an it also means that emissions are higher than they important opportunity for should be. for the UK economy” the UK economy.This market is expected to be worth So promoting green growth is at the heart of our trillions of pounds over the years ahead and could environmental and economic agenda. However, we be a significant source of new jobs and revenues. understand that achieving this will not be easy and will require a careful combination of policies and General Electric, one of the largest companies in the methods.The Conservative Party’s Quality of Life world, is just one of many that have benefited from policy group is developing detailed policies in the this trend.Its revenues from environmentally friendly run-up to the next general election, but three key technology, such as pollution controls and wind elements of our environmental agenda are clear. power generators, were over $10 billion in 2005, up from “UK firms have less than First, there needs to be a long-term $6.2 billion in 2004 – with a five per cent share of framework for tackling climate orders nearly doubling to $17 the global market for change. Labour’s inconclusive billion. energy reviews and failure to green goods and provide a stable regulatory system So, rather than green policies services – less than have deterred businesses from stifling economic growth, it’s France, Germany, Japan investing in new environmental clear that the converse is true: a and the United States” technologies because they are unable strong economy can go hand in to calculate whether the investment hand with environmentalism. is viable.This has proved to be bad Unfortunately, Gordon Brown has been all too slow for the environment and bad for the British to realise this. As a result, Britain is falling far behind economy. other countries when it comes to taking advantage of the vast new green technologies market. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 29

That is why the Conservative Party is committed to mechanisms to encourage investment in, and take up 27 introducing a robust Climate Change Bill that puts of, clean new technologies that will create new our long term carbon reduction targets into the markets and reduce our impact on the planet. statute book. Unlike the Labour government, we believe that progress towards these targets should be In practice, this means rebalancing the tax system assessed by an independent body, which should also away from investment and income, and towards provide binding year-on-year rate of change targets pollution and emissions; in order to ensure that progress is being made. higher taxes on things we all “ we must not be afraid of want to discourage enabling Second, much more needs to be done to promote lower taxes on things we using the tax system and international cooperation on environmental issues. want to encourage. market mechanisms to

After all, climate change does not recognise national Unfortunately, Gordon Brown encourage investment shade of blue? a greener boundaries or halt at border checkpoints. Effective has done precisely the in, and take up of, clean action on climate change requires countries working opposite. Since 1997, the new technologies” together, for instance, by agreeing common goals and proportion of government sharing environmental technologies. revenue raised by environmental taxes has fallen from 7.7 per cent to The Conservative Party is committed to international 6.2 per cent, while business investment has fallen to cooperation on climate change. Our Interim Energy the lowest levels ever recorded. As Friends of the Review, published last summer, set out the long-term Earth recently commented: “For 10 years, Gordon goal of creating a global market in tradable carbon Brown has failed to provide a green budget.” 6 permits by building on the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme.This approach will involve We need to do better.That is why David Cameron the auction of emission certificates and I have launched a Conservative Party and the creation of a transparent “ promoting green consultation document on the taxation diminishing cap on the number of growth is at the of aviation.The government’s own certificates available. As emissions heart of our figures show that even according to the trading schemes across the world environmental and ‘best case’ scenario, aviation will have shown, the interaction account for 24 per cent of the UK’s between these mechanisms can act economic agenda” carbon emissions by 2050. as a powerful driver for lower emissions and technological innovation. Those who argue that we must stop flying altogether are wrong. But we will be unable to meet our Third, the tax system needs to be rebalanced so that national and international targets for reducing it properly takes into account the environmental cost greenhouse gas emissions unless we reduce the rapid of pollution. As David Cameron has said, we must not predicted future growth of aircraft emissions and be afraid of using the tax system and market tackle dirty engines. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 30

28 Any solution will require a combination of As well as reducing taxes on investment and income, international cooperation and national action.The and increasing taxes on pollution, it will also be focus of this consultation is what can be done at the necessary to replace Gordon Brown’s flawed Climate national level. In particular, the current system of Change Levy. aviation taxation in the UK is fundamentally flawed – air passenger duty (APD) is not directly linked to As David Miliband’s special adviser has said, the carbon emissions and provides no incentives for Climate Change Levy isn’t fit for purpose.The key airlines to use more fuel-efficient aircraft. Even the problem is that the rates paid by businesses on their Government admits that it is a “blunt instrument”.7 energy use do not reflect the carbon emissions from Our consultation asks for submissions in response to that energy. Instead of taxing businesses according to three main policy ideas: the amount of carbon they emit, it’s simply a tax on

a greener shade of blue? a greener the energy consumed by business. As the Royal • charging fuel duty and/or VAT on domestic Commission on Environmental Pollution has said, flights this means that the Climate Change Levy is a “blunt • replacing APD with a per-flight tax based more instrument” that is “not effective in reducing carbon closely on actual carbon emissions dioxide emissions.”9 And as experts have pointed • introducing a ‘Green Air Miles Allowance’ so that out, coal use actually increased following the people who fly more frequently pay tax at a introduction of the Levy – further evidence that a higher rate replacement is urgently required.

“ this is our direction of As with all environmental That is why we have published a consultation paper travel: encouraging green taxes, any new aviation on a new Carbon Charge. Unlike the Climate Change growth and environmental taxes that we propose will Levy, this Carbon Charge would distinguish between protection through be replacement taxes, with high and low carbon production of energy, and so encourage companies to switch to cleaner energy international cooperation, any extra revenues offset by equivalent reductions in sources. It is also designed to be fiscally neutral, long-term targets and other forms of taxation. meaning that it will not result in a higher tax burden effective market for British businesses. mechanisms” We are pleased that the proposals have attracted So this is our direction of travel: encouraging green widespread cross party growth and environmental protection through support, for instance from Tony Blair’s former head international cooperation, long-term targets and of policy, Matthew Taylor, who described them as a effective market mechanisms. “Fantastic Policy...the right policy...a progressive policy.”8 If only Gordon Brown was similarly We understand that tackling climate change won’t be committed to taking substantive action. easy – but we also recognise that although the challenge ahead is great, the stakes are even greater. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 31

“ The options are stark: we can promote economic prosperity whilst also acting as responsible stewards 29 of our planet, or we can court economic and environmental ruin”

When Theodore Roosevelt said these words one hundred years ago, he captured the challenge facing our generation today.The options are stark: we can promote economic prosperity whilst also acting as

responsible stewards of our planet, or we can court shade of blue? a greener economic and environmental ruin.

We are committed to meeting this challenge. Future generations will not forgive us if we fail.

George Osborne is a Member of Parliament for Tatton and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 32

30 the greening of the Tory party: rhetoric or reality?

Charles Secrett

In a matter of months during 2006, David Cameron housing and energy policy through to global managed something that no previous opposition warming and international agreements.”10 But like leader (or party) has succeeded in doing in decades their equally vaunted ‘ethical foreign policy’ and – he has thrown the government continuously on guaranteed 20 per cent cut in carbon dioxide the defensive about its environmental record and emissions on 1990 levels by 2010, this welcome

a greener shade of blue? a greener elevated climate change to mainstream parliamentary green mandate quickly withered once in politics. government.

There must be much gnashing of teeth and tearing In addition, the Tories were cast into the political of hair amongst Liberal Democrat supporters and wilderness by the 1997 election - with their deep their ‘greenest’ MPs, such as Matthew Taylor,Tom unpopularity confirmed in 2001, and again in 2005 Brake and the indefatigable Norman Baker, who has – and the position of Her Majesty’s Official long waged an almost one-man campaign in Opposition was there for the taking. But it looks as parliament to make this break-through. After all, the if the Liberal Democrats have blown their chance to Lib-Dems are no ‘Johnny-come-lately’ to the fill the vacuum, and must watch from the sidelines environmental cause, having had by far the greenest as Cameron wraps himself and his resurgent party in policies and manifestos of the three major parties for their green policy clothes.This in itself is a Cameron the past 15 years.The trouble is that, as an coup. opposition party, they have failed to make political and parliamentary capital of this distinctive Through media-savvy events like his well-publicised advantage – and for that Paddy Ashdown and, trip to the Arctic, and politically significant decisions especially, Charles Kennedy and his campaign like his backing of statutory targets to reduce carbon strategists should hang their heads in shame. dioxide emissions, Cameron has forced the cabinet to play catch-up. New Labour is now bringing One of New Labour’s weakest and most exposed forward its own Climate Change Bill, after years of flanks has been their feeble environmental record, stalling, and David Miliband, as secretary of state for particularly given their failure to deliver on clear-cut, the environment, is trying to gain the initiative by unambiguous manifesto promises made in 1997: “We will put concern for the environment at the heart of policy-making, so that it is not an add-on extra, but informs the whole of government, from S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 33

publicising a host of suddenly revealed New Labour from a second-rate parliamentary concern “ is the Cameron 31 proposals: from promising all new homes to be to a first-rank priority.And for that, inspired Tory- zero-carbon rated by 2016 to introducing personal Cameron deserves real praise. green revolution carbon allowances for every citizen and the types of substantive eco-tax reform advocated in this Notwithstanding the inequities of for real or pamphlet by Cameron, Hurd and Osborne. Britain’s simple majority voting system, another false which is as effective at protecting the dawn?” Of course, David Cameron has had a lot of outside two big parties from successful electoral help – not least from the 130,000 constituents (though not political) challenges by the Liberal mobilised by Friends of the Earth’s (FoE) Big Ask Democrats and the Green Party as the lack of money campaign, who lobbied MPs of all parties to back is in preventing every other football club from

mandatory carbon emission cuts; as well as the breaking the stranglehold of the ‘Big Four’ on the shade of blue? a greener stream of authoritative scientific evidence and Premiership, it is surprising that the Conservative constant media coverage of looming climate change Party has taken so long to treat environmental issues and sea-level rises. seriously.

The media has always prominently covered green Since the late 1980s, if not earlier, a majority of issues, and pressure groups like FoE and the citizens and scientists have repeatedly registered their Association for the Conservation of Energy have long concerns about accelerating habitat destruction, been successful in drafting innovative green bills and rapidly diminishing wild species populations, building sufficient constituency pressure to see them growing mountains of waste and pollution threats of enacted as law, even in the face of government all types, as well as the undeniable evidence of the blocking tactics.To name economic and social harm that trails in their wake. “ this is the first just three of many,The The votes seemed to be there for the taking by time that the Road Traffic Reduction Act whichever party stepped up to the plate. Instead, (1997),The Warm Homes every now and again over the past 20 years, senior environmental and Energy Conservation Conservative and Labour politicians (most notably agenda has been Act (2000), and Parts III Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair) pop up to reassure elevated from a and IV of the Countryside us that something must and will be done... before second-rate and Rights of Way Act business as usual resumes. (2000), covering habitat parliamentary and wildlife reserve So the question we have to ask is: is the Cameron concern to a first- protection, were all inspired Tory-green revolution for real or another rank priority. And achieved in this way. false dawn? for that, Cameron But this is the first time deserves real that the environmental The short – but not very interesting – answer is that praise” agenda has been elevated it is too early to say.The Conservative policy groups S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 34

32 are still beavering away, but have not reported.The famous line from New Labour’s 1997 manifesto? Quality of Life Commission (a people friendly term “The Conservative’s broken promises taint all which covers the awkward polysyllabic agenda of politics.That is why we have made it our guiding sustainable development, biodiversity protection, rule not to promise what we cannot deliver; and to localisation et al) is led by two prominent green- deliver what we promise.”11 Enough said. blues with impressive track-records: John Gummer MP, one of the three best environment secretaries of Cameron’s Turquoise Tories are not Blair’s New state this country has had, and Zac Goldsmith, Labour, so things may be different next time round, campaigning editor of the Ecologist, one of the three should the Conservatives win the next election. As best green magazines available. we try to gauge how meaningful the Conservative green revolution is – and from the leadership at

a greener shade of blue? a greener We’ll have to wait and see what ends up in the least, it seems sincere – my point is that you can general election manifesto before knowing where never really tell what a politician or political party is the Conservatives stand - and whether the Quality of going to do until he, she or it grabs the reins of Life Commission’s conclusions on energy, transport, power. economic management, taxation, public spend and globalisation mesh with the other lead groups in Looking back these critical policy areas. Unless the Conservative So, we should look at what the Conservatives said manifesto embeds carbon dioxide reduction and and did on the environment when they were other environmental priorities as responsibilities for previously in charge, for clues as to whether all the main Whitehall departments to deliver Cameron will succeed in greening the Conservatives together, and convincingly demonstrates how they and to get a clearer picture of the obstacles he has to intend to use regulatory and fiscal policy to deliver overcome. significant carbon emission cuts, clean fuels and power, fewer flights, minimal waste and maximum As well as modernising the Conservative party, resource-use efficiency throughout the economy, Cameron’s other significant challenge is to hold its then we will have to conclude that Britain’s currently various wings together – and none may be more unsustainable development path will continue much inimical to the green agenda than the 30 per cent as before. solid minority for whom Mrs Thatcher and her brand of modern Conservatism is still the be-all- And then, after the manifesto is published, there is and-end-all of political achievement.Thatcher’s also the vexatious conflict between philosophy can be summed up crudely what opposition parties say and what “ Cameron’s in nine words: deregulation, they do once in power. It is a lot privatisation, individuality, national easier to promise from the Turquoise Tories sovereignty, more market, less state. And, backbenches than deliver in are not Blair’s all too often, it was putting this ideology government. Remember another New Labour” into practice that prevented her S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 35

administrations from delivering on their green Every year between 1980 and 1988, Britain dumped 33 manifesto pledges, as some typical examples some eight million tonnes of sewage sludge, illustrate.The 1979 Conservative manifesto stated: containing large amounts of poisonous heavy metals “The quality of our environment is a vital concern to like lead, cadmium and mercury, into the North Sea. all of us.The last Conservative government had a We were the only marine-border state to do so. In proud record of achievement in reducing pollution, 1989, a joint study by the Observer and FoE and protecting our heritage and countryside. We shall demonstrated that millions of people’s drinking water continue to give these issues a proper priority. Subject breached European statutory limits for contaminants, to the availability of resources, we shall pay particular including lead, aluminium, nitrates and pesticides. attention to the improvement and restoration of Until the European Economic Community (EEC) derelict land, the disposal and recycling of dangerous forced the government to change, pesticide approval

and other wastes, and reducing pollution of our was controlled solely by a voluntary agreement shade of blue? a greener rivers and canals. We attach particular importance to between pesticide manufacturers and the Ministry of measures to reduce fuel consumption by improving Agriculture. Even when weak control regulations insulation.”12 were brought in, the government had to admit in 1989 that over 100 pesticides were still being Sadly, the reality of delivery was somewhat different. approved for sale based only on rudimentary safety The 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act was intended tests carried out in or before 1965. to protect Britain’s most important (as well as typical) wildlife habitats and species and, in particular, our Again in 1989, the Department of the Environment best wildlife reserves – the national network of sites (DoE) admitted to the Commons Environment of special scientific interest (SSSIs). The act was based Committee that only 23 of 79 waste authorities had on the ‘voluntary approach’ where, instead of completed the statutory waste disposal plans required prohibiting damaging land-use operations, land- by the 1974 Control of Pollution Act.The first report owners were compensated on the basis of the profits of the Hazardous Waste Inspectorate in 1985 declared foregone from not ‘improving’ the agricultural or that “all too many major hazardous waste landfill other development value of the reserves. It didn’t sites … exude an atmosphere of total dereliction and work. In 1984-85, 255 SSSIs were seriously damaged decay, are under-equipped, undermanned and operate (a typical annual figure) by inimical land-uses, with a notable lack of professionalism.”13 Perhaps mostly agricultural and forestry. By 1989, little had even more tellingly, the first annual report of Her improved, with 228 SSSIs suffering the same fate in Majesty’s Inspectorate of Pollution in 1987/88 that year. confirmed that there were still no reliable statistics on the country’s waste generation and disposal.The new Throughout the 1980s, river pollution incidents inspectorates were welcome first steps – but not became ever more frequent. Government figures for much good if the state wouldn’t provide the money 1988 show a 15 per cent rise on 1987, with the total for clean-up or ensure that private sector polluters – 26,926 cases – more than double the 1980 figure. paid instead. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 36

34 vehicles onto an expanding road network. As for reducing fuel use by improving insulation, or Privatisation of the water and energy sectors pushed other energy efficiency measures, the government’s environmental necessities further down the ladder of attitude throughout the 1980s was summed up by a priorities. During the 1980s, discharge consents Department of Energy comment on a global were relaxed for 1,800 of Britain’s 6,600 sewage warming report from the Commons Energy works. In 1989, in the run-up to water privatisation, Committee in November 1989: “The Government consents for nearly 1,000 more works were relaxed believes that since energy efficiency is above all a – otherwise the government would be selling off matter for decisions and actions by individuals … illegal sewage plant and the companies would have then the best way forward is through the operation faced private prosecutions under the 1974 Control of the market, lubricated by information and of Pollution Act.The situation had grown so bad

a greener shade of blue? a greener advice.”The trouble is that it wasn’t – and millions because of Whitehall enforced financial constraints of low-income families and other vulnerable people throughout the 1980s, which prevented the public suffered the debilitating effects of fuel poverty and water authorities from spending on essential died prematurely in their thousands during cold maintenance and modernisation. winters, as carbon dioxide emissions rose. The regulatory framework for the privatised energy Similar promises in the 1983 and 1987 manifestos industry, as set out in the 1989 Electricity Act, was also foundered on the rocks of rigid principle. even more barmy.As the act went through the Deregulation of the bus industry outside of London Commons, the government rejected all amendments led to significantly reduced services, particularly in promoting energy efficiency and greatly watered rural areas, declining passenger numbers and cheap, down the only successful one from the rebellious poorly maintained vehicles belching out diesel Lords. Not only did the act fail to promote – or at fumes and cancerous particulates. Local councils least set a level playing field - for renewable power, it were prohibited from spending central government positively encouraged the industry (as had happened grants on subsidising public transport - and roads with the sell-off of British Gas in 1987) to make its were definitely the order of the day over rail. In profits by persuading companies and householders 1985, Nicholas Ridley, then transport secretary, to use as much electricity as possible. Discounts of proclaimed that government spending on roads had up to 25 per cent were quickly offered to large-scale risen by 30 per cent in real terms since 1979; in users (factories and mega-stores) whose 1989, Paul Channon, his successor, published ‘Roads consumption exceeded 1MW annually. Similar to Prosperity’, which promised to double roads incentives were available to gas users who exceeded spending with a ten year, £12 billion programme. 25,000 therms per year. Mrs Thatcher was notoriously proud of Britain’s “great car economy”, apparently not understanding Finally, there was Europe. Most of the UK’s faltering (or caring about?) the enormous health and environmental progress in the 1980s was due to EEC environmental costs of piling ever more polluting laws. But the government went down fighting in its S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 37

considerable attempts to keep at bay “ Most of the UK’s at all levels. Just last year,Tory 35 the malign influence of ‘Johnny- faltering backbenchers ignored his lead by foreigner’s’ perverse desire to protect environmental talking out the private member’s and clean up the natural progress in the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy environment and improve the 1980s was due to Bill. quality of life for all.To take just a few brief examples from many: the EEC laws” As Chris Huhne, the current Liberal DoE vetoed the Environmental Democract environment spokesman, Impact Assessment Directive for five years, even has recently catalogued in The Guardian, local though it merely sought to formalise existing best Conservative administrations have a long way to go practice. Britain blocked implementation of the to match their leader’s words with appropriate

Emissions from Large Combustion Plant Directive for action. For example, the Scottish Conservative 2007 shade of blue? a greener four years, even though we were the largest polluter election manifesto was awarded 0/10 for its green of sulphur dioxide, one of the principle ingredients credentials by an independent NGO adjudicator.The of acid rain.The government designated just 27 Conservative’s 2004 European manifesto scored the beaches (out of hundreds) under the Bathing Water lowest of all the parties when judged by Directive, and it authorised a highly selective and environmental yardsticks. In Cameron’s own inadequate implementation of the Drinking Water constituency,West Oxfordshire council is cutting its Directive.The list goes on. Even when European recycling budget, even though it has one of the policies were implemented, the DoE overwhelmingly poorest records of any in the country.There were preferred to use administrative mechanisms rather fewer Conservative councils in a recent Guardian than primary or secondary legislation. By the mid- survey of good local authority green performance 1980s, it was not surprising that Britain had earned than any of the other main parties. London Assembly the unenviable reputation as the ‘dirty man of and (west London) Richmond Council Conservatives Europe’. oppose higher parking charges for gas-guzzlers. Conservative-led Swale Borough Council is blocking Being a green leader the ‘London Array’ (strongly endorsed by Ken The continuing influence of Mrs Thatcher’s Livingstone as The Mayor of London), which will be considerable legacy can be seen not only in New the world’s largest wind farm. The farm itself will Labour’s adoption of a similar set of guiding be 12 miles off shore, but Swale principles in government (albeit with a lot more Borough Council is refusing “ Tory administrations government spend on health and education) but also permission for an essential electricity locally have a long sub-station in their territory, with in the performance of many Conservative run way to go to match authorities today.At the local level, as well as in the Tory councilors comparing their unreconstructed rump of his parliamentary party, actions to “defending the Kent coast their leader’s words David Cameron faces some of his biggest challenges from Nazi invasion.”14 Recently, in with appropriate to successfully and convincingly greening his party Scotland, Caroline Spelman, the Tory action” S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 38

36 communities and local government spokeswoman, each other.” In October, she continued the theme in called for a moratorium on all wind farms. Despite her speech to the Conservative annual party her government’s appalling domestic environmental conference by declaring that Conservatives were “not performance, Margaret Thatcher, along with Mikhael merely friends of the earth, but its guardians and Gorbachev, was the first world leader to respond to trustees for generations to come.” And a year later, the global environmental crisis that first unfolded in on 8 November, she addressed the UN General the late 1980s. Assembly, declaring that it was “mankind and his activities which are changing the environment of Then, as now, newspapers, radio and TV fell over our planet in damaging and dangerous ways … the themselves in their scramble to broadcast the eco- evidence is there … the damage is being done.” and disasters that the scientific community and green concluded that “the repair work needs to start

a greener shade of blue? a greener NGOs had been documenting and warning about for without delay.” years. Climate change also first hit the headlines back then. 1988 was the fifth of (the then) ‘five warmest Then, as now with Cameron’s parliamentary break- years on record’: all occurring during the 1980s. As through, the environmental movement in Britain severe droughts and forest fires swarmed across the thought their time had come, and that action would United States and China, and floods decimated be taken to resolve the crisis before it was too late. Bangladesh, James Hansen, of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, made global warming But it was not to be.Then, as now, the reality of world news when he told a Senate Committee, “The government in power gave the lie to the fine words. greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is Blair must be given credit for making, on average, changing our climate now.”15 one really big speech on the environmental crisis annually since his first major effort in the run-up to But, like Tony Blair over the past decade, Mrs the 1997 election.Today, senior politicians, officials Thatcher made her international reputation as a and journalists in many other countries credit Blair ‘green leader’ through prominent speeches and not for keeping climate change on the international decisive action.Three seemed especially important at political agenda. the time. Like Blair, her rhetoric was impressive. On 27 September 1988, she told the Royal Society: “We But if Blair wins these plaudits then Chancellor might have begun a Brown – in effect the principal massive experiment with “ …like Tony Blair over the past determiner of what actually got the system of this planet decade, Mrs Thatcher made done by New Labour in itself”, and went on to government – must take the blame assert that “the health of her international reputation for ensuring that nothing our economy and the as a ‘green leader’ through meaningful has been achieved to health of our environment prominent speeches and not reduce carbon dioxide and other are totally dependent on decisive action” greenhouse gas emissions through S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 39

considered policy (as opposed to opportunistically increased competitiveness, as Britain moves toward 37 realised carbon dioxide reductions due to the decline the low carbon, low waste economy required for of British manufacturing industries and the ‘dash- this century. It can be done, as Ken Livingstone has for-gas’).There have been no effective tax incentives shown with his recently published London Climate for firms and householders to make and use Change Action Plan. renewables and clean fuels, no carbon pricing, no regulatory drivers for energy and fuel efficiency in The only thing missing from the policy cocktail is buildings, machinery and appliances, no green the political will to make the transition, and to use procurement, no VAT reduction on energy-efficient the tools of government (regulation, fiscal policy goods and materials, no polluter-pays penalties. Or at and leadership by doing, not talking) to set Britain least none worth the name. Sure, there have been on a sustainable trajectory.That is the ultimate

token gestures – the climate levy, marginal changes challenge that Mr Cameron faces if he becomes shade of blue? a greener to fuel duty and road tax, slightly reduced prime minister – to move on from the Thatcherite differentials for gas-based fuels, derisory increases in approach to government and whip the Treasury into air passenger duty, small allocations for renewable line – and it will be the truest test of his green energy – but nothing that persuades business and credentials. consumers to change behaviour significantly. Charles Secrett is Environment Advisor to The London As long as it is cheap, legal and convenient to waste Mayor’s Office and Visit London, and previously Director carbon dioxide and natural resources, then that is of Friends of the Earth (1993-2003). what the majority will continue to do. Above all else, the Treasury has to change for Britain to go green.

It is not that the solutions are absent. Britain, like every other wealthy country, has the money, technical expertise, industrial infrastructure, public support and knowledge to cut carbon emissions to the levels “ the ultimate challenge determined by best science: up that Mr Cameron faces to 60 per cent reductions on if he becomes prime 1990 levels by 2025 and 90 minister is to move on per cent by 2050. And we are capable of doing so in ways from the Thatcherite that will invigorate approach to productivity and wealth government and whip creation through innovation, the Treasury into line” greatly enhanced efficiency and S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 40

38 accidents and achievements: the Conservative environmental record Tom Burke

Finding myself working for a Conservative tackling the problems in question.They can also government was one of the more unexpected turns simply shout at people – exhorting them to do in the thirty five years I have spent as an better. Finally, though not properly a tool of environmentalist.This was not a predictable fate for a government, real progress can be made by accident. a greener shade of blue? a greener former member of the Labour Party’s national policy committees on both energy and the environment. The importance of this latter point should not be But it did give me a matchless opportunity to underestimated. When Ted Heath led Britain into the observe close up how the environment was dealt then Common Market in 1973 improving the with by government. It also confirmed the enduring environment was far from the top of his reasons for truth of a remark by the historian, Macaulay, who doing so.Yet, arguably, Britain’s membership of the warned us to “Remember that argument is European Union (EU) has been, and remains, the constructed in one way and government in entirely most significant political decision ever taken to another.” protect our environment.This will become increasingly apparent as Gordon Brown continues to “Britain’s membership There are a limited number of vandalise the planning system. The fact that Special of the EU has been, tools available to government to Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation and remains, the achieve its environmental are defined by European legislation and protected objectives.The most important of from whimsical repeal by the European Court of most significant these is cash. Governments can Justice is a powerful barrier to expedient policies. political decision spend money to achieve their Ironically, it was a Conservative environment ever taken to protect goals.They can regulate to control secretary, Michael Howard, who discovered, our environment” unacceptable behaviours.They can empirically and expensively, just how powerful a appoint people to public offices defence this could be. He granted planning of one kind or another. Often permission to a development on a protected site and overlooked is their ability to create – and sometimes the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds went to destroy – institutions.They can develop policies that the Court and won. set out their environmental goals and the paths they intend to follow to achieve them.These policies may Mrs Thatcher’s abolition of the Central Electricity or may not be derived from general ideological Generating Board (CEGB) and defeat of Arthur positions that define their broad approach to Scargill during the miner’s strike are more examples S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 41

of the power of political accidents to protect the The Conservatives have been luckier than Labour 39 environment. It was certainly not her intention in though. During their long period of dominance in privatising the electricity industry to kill Britain’s the eighties and nineties they were dealing with the nuclear industry.Yet, that is what she accomplished. easier politics of the environment.These could be Investors took one look at the CEGB’s books and, managed largely by regulation.The harder much more loudly and effectively than environmental politics of the 21st Century, as we environmentalists, said ‘Nuclear Power, No Thanks’. struggle to maintain the productivity of the And they continue to hold this view, despite the ecological foundations of the economy, will require current government’s desperate search for a way of an as yet undiscovered willingness to make large covertly bribing them into taking the risk. Mrs public investments. For example, the only real test of Thatcher’s attack on the miners was purely political a government’s climate change policy

in motivation but one of its wholly unintended is to ask how much, on what, by shade of blue? a greener consequences was to reduce Britain’s greenhouse gas when. When we see Conservative and “ the only real test emissions way beyond what they would otherwise Labour politicians competing with of a government’s have been. each other over how much we need climate change to spend on the environment, as they policy is to ask If Conservative political accidents have accomplished currently compete to out do each how much, on much for the environment, the same cannot be said other on welfare spending, the for their willingness to spend cash. In fact, an area of environment really will be at the what, by when” surprising, if tacit, agreement between all of Britain’s centre of politics. political parties, has been the belief that a high quality environment can somehow be achieved Public institutions embody, promote and protect without much public expenditure. In the days when values. Policies come and go as governments and the very rapid and, for many, painful re-structuring times change. Institutions remain. Over time, their of Britain’s economy was bringing massive windfall mission becomes clearer and their capabilities grow. benefits in terms of improving air and water quality, Conservative environment policy has a good track this may have had some justification.Those days are, record of institution building. It was Ted Heath that however, long gone. brought together the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, whose Total public spending on the environment has barely remit included public works and planning, to create increased in real terms under both Conservative and the Department of the Environment (DoE) under Labour governments. We currently spend about £8.5 Peter Walker in 1970.This endured as an increasingly billion a year on environmental protection.This powerful piece of government machinery until its compares rather badly with the £89.4 billion a year destruction by Labour in 1997. that we spend on health and the £67.9 billion that we spend on education. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 42

40 Prior to this, environmental policy was in the hands Council for the Protection of Rural England this of a small unit, the Central Unit on Environmental was clearly an attempt to sell the police force to the Pollution, in the Cabinet Office. Making the DoE a mafia. Their threat of a judicial review backed by big spending department gave it real political clout counsel’s opinion that this would be a breach of and ensured that its leadership was in the hands of European legislation was enough to cause a hasty a senior politician. Furthermore, by giving it retreat by the DoE. control of planning policy it placed in its hands a powerful and effective tool for managing the The NRA, under the leadership of a former environment on a small and very crowded island. Conservative cabinet minister, Lord Crickhowell, went on to become a widely respected and effective This bore fruit as the environment inched up the protector of the environment. Indeed, so powerful

a greener shade of blue? a greener political agenda and the DoE became an ever more did it become that part of the political motivation attractive perch for ambitious politicians and civil for later merging it with the Pollution Inspectorate servants – both of the current cabinet secretary’s to create the Environment Agency was to clip its predecessors were permanent secretaries at DoE. It wings. Nevertheless, whatever the motivation, the also stands in marked contrast to the current creation of the Environment Agency established a confused, diminished and demoralised powerful and independent body that is able to arrangements surrounding today’s Department for manage a wide range of environmental regulations the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It on air, water and wastes free of short term political is an unexpected paradox that we now have weaker interference. institutions to manage our environment than we did ten years ago, despite Labour’s much more As the environment rose up the political agenda, vocal and consistent commitment to green issues. particularly during the somewhat scary moment in the late eighties when the Green Party in Britain The creation of the National Rivers Authority secured 15 per cent of the vote in the European (NRA) was a not quite accidental outcome of water Parliament elections, the temptation to exploit the privatisation and another example of how elision of Conservative and conservation was too important membership of the EU has been to the great for many Conservative politicians to resist.This environment in Britain. Water privatisation took was not enough however to save the Nature control of Britain’s freshwaters out of the hands of Conservancy Council (NCC), the body then charged local authorities, who had taken to exempting with protecting Britain’s biodiversity, from the wrath themselves from having to comply with water of Environment Secretary Nicholas Ridley. Under the quality regulations that they found overly chairmanship of William Wilkinson, a former burdensome. The Conservative government’s banker, the NCC had become a potent and original intention however had been to make the authoritative champion of nature and a significant newly privatised water companies responsible for thorn in the government’s side. In a deliberate, but the enforcement of pollution controls. To the ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to weaken its voice, S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 43

Ridley discovered a previously unrecognised appetite signing the Framework Convention on Climate 41 for devolution and broke the NCC up into four Change, which was the most important success of separate bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and the summit. In Europe, John Gummer set out to, and Northern Ireland. succeeded in, reversing the ‘dirty man of Europe’ When politicians talk among label that had been attached to themselves a dominant topic “The primary tools of Britain during the previous Labour of conversation is who gets and Conservative administrations. By what job. Control of local environmental the end of the Major years, and government finance gave the management are public unnoticed by the media, Britain had environment secretary spending, regulation become the leading promoter of the considerable clout with and taxation. If you are environment globally. constituency party chairmen. ideologically disinclined shade of blue? a greener This, together with control of Substantive environment policy has the planning system, made it a to use any of these always presented Conservative desirable office for an tools it is difficult to get thinkers with something of a ambitious politician. Michael beyond piety and problem.The primary tools of Heseltine, Michael Howard exhortation” environmental management are and Chris Patten were among public spending, regulation and the leading Conservative taxation. If you are ideologically politicians of their generation to hold the post. John disinclined to use any of these tools it is difficult to Gummer, a former party chairman, held the office get beyond piety and exhortation.This vacuum drove for four years and left with his wider political Conservative environmental policy to develop the reputation much enhanced when his contemporaries use of market based economic instruments to were having theirs diminished. Not all were achieve environmental goals.These are mostly remembered kindly. Nicholas Ridely remains to this nothing more than rather inefficient regulations and day one of the worst environment secretaries ever disguised taxes but they sound more compatible and some, like Kenneth Baker, are barely with a business friendly approach. remembered at all. Mrs Thatcher embodied this unresolved tension in Profile in the headlines is not always a good measure Conservatism; wanting simultaneously to glorify the of progress. John Major is an unlikely candidate for market and return to Victorian values. She never any green political award.Yet, with his support, understood that economic opportunity corrodes Britain played a leading role in the run up to the social ligatures; that an expanding realm of 1992 Earth Summit, even going so far as to provide individual choice leads to a triumph of transactions a $1 million bail out to the NGO forum that over relationships.The creative destruction of the accompanied it. Michael Howard’s negotiating skills market is inherently anarchic.The aspiration to were central to bringing the United States into Victorian values reflected a desire for order and S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 44

42 predictable behaviours wholly at odds with this first time in Britain, was to set out a comprehensive impulse.The current prime minister’s neo- policy for the environment.The Chris Patten white Thatcherism makes the same error, just as he finds paper,‘This Common Inheritance: Britain’s himself driven to ever more draconian and intrusive Environmental Strategy’ was the first attempt to measures to correct the social bring together both the resource and pollution “ The environment poses consequences. aspects of the environment into a comprehensive Dealing with a shared statement of public policy. It is an achievement that a deeper and more environment requires ten years of New Labour has not managed to repeat. defining challenge to collective action above all.The Michael Heseltine’s creation of the MINIS system of Cameron’s Conservatives economy and its markets, public reporting on the achievement of DoE goals than simply coming up which are its most powerful also created a much missed device for monitoring a greener shade of blue? a greener with some popular, instruments, rest on government performance. For the late editor of the ecological foundations.These Environmental Data Service, Marek Myer, it was a headline catching policy are the six bio-geophysical gift that he used relentlessly to expose the gap prescriptions” systems that provide us with between rhetoric and reality. all the goods and services not provided by fossil fuels and There is much that David Cameron could learn from non-fossil minerals – croplands, rangelands, the track record of his predecessors. Institution forestlands, freshwaters, oceans and the atmosphere. building has been a Conservative strength and he Undermine the productivity of these six systems and could win many friends by promising to restore a you ultimately undermine the productivity of the proper Department of the Environment with a clear economy and the ability of markets to deliver. mandate and the tools, especially management of the planning system, to do the job.The lack of any clear Meeting this challenge sits oddly with a political statement of the government’s overarching philosophy that asserts the imperial environmental policy is one of the many authority of individual choice. It is a “ Institution reasons why Defra is such a feeble player more comfortable fit with an older strand building has in Whitehall. A promise to produce an of Conservatism which recognises, values early white paper on the environment is and seeks to sustain the richer been a another easy win for Cameron to exploit complexity of relationships embedded in Conservative the vacuum left by Labour. culture and tradition.The environment strength” poses a deeper and more defining Restoring Britain’s leading role in challenge to Cameron’s Conservatives Europe will be more difficult for him, as than simply coming up with some popular, headline will finding a way to raise and spend the large sums catching policy prescriptions. of public money that will be required if we are to meet the 21st Century’s environment problems, What the Conservatives did manage to do, for the especially climate change, with any hope of success. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 45

Euro-scepticism is not readily compatible with 43 environmentalism, but environmental taxation, provided it delivers environmental outcomes, will create opportunities for tax cuts, as well as new spend. Cameron has been right to identify the environment as an issue on which he could win an argument with Labour. So far, he has used this opportunity well. But the proof will be in how he governs, not in how he challenges a weak opposition.

Tom Burke is the founding Director of E3G, previously shade of blue? a greener Special Advisor to three Conservative secretaries of state for the environment and Director of Green Alliance from 1982 – 91. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 46

44 why beauty matters

Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP

A couple of years ago, I gave a speech arguing that I have to make the argument. So here goes. politics should take the beauty of our natural and Why does beauty matter as much as prosperity or built environment into account.There was much justice or security or climate change or health or muttering in the political education? My answer is that beauty is, dovecots. “Always knew he was “ beauty is a significant like all these other things, a significant an eccentric...What’s he doing component of general well-being.

a greener shade of blue? a greener component of general burbling on about beauty?…Can’t he think of well-being” To live surrounded by what one finds some more crunchy issue to ugly is to live a deprived life. At the talk about?”That, at any rate, was the gist of it. extreme, sensory deprivation (living without natural light in a blank cell) is a form of torture that is Disentangling the serious argument from the usual designed to drive the subject mad. But even much politics, there were, I think, two main lines of attack: less extreme forms of aesthetic deprivation have enormous effects on psychological and spiritual • some people argued, or implied, that beauty well-being. doesn’t matter very much – that it’s a luxury item which can’t compete with prosperity or justice A child who is brought up in the aesthetic or security or climate change or health or desolation of some of our urban tower-blocks, a education. child whose daily landscape does not include the • other people argued that, even if beauty did beauty of garden squares or the sunlight coming matter as much as these other things, through leaves in a park, a child who has no access “ people argued that there wasn’t much point in politicians to the grand scenes of the countryside, of the even if beauty did talking about it, because politics mountains and the lakes, of the cliffs and the sea, is matter there wasn’t couldn’t have any real effect on how deprived – not in the way in which a child whose beautiful our country is. parents are living hand to mouth in poverty is much point in deprived, but in a different and important way. politicians talking In the intervening two years I have about it, because spent quite a lot of time thinking In the modern city, poverty and ugliness of politics couldn’t about these two criticisms, and I have surroundings often go hand in hand. But the have any real effect come to the conclusion that they are ugliness is itself a deprivation, additional to the both wrong. But I now recognise that, poverty. on how beautiful instead of just making the speech, our country is” S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 47

Do people differ in this? Is beauty a more important that implies lack of aesthetic passion. Indeed, the 45 component of well-being for some people than for considerable literature on the effects of designing others? Yes, of course it is. For some, it is the out crime in social housing shows very clearly that essence, at the centre of their being; for others, it is introducing beauty into ugly and decrepit estates has merely a component; for others yet, perhaps, it is an enormous effect on the social cohesion and well- only of secondary importance. But this is true of being of the people living in them. every aspect of quality of life. It hardly takes a survey to show that different things matter to different Surprise, surprise: poor people care about what their people. surroundings look like, just like rich people.

The fact that beauty matters more to some than to Of course, it is true that beauty matters less at

others puts it in the same class as prosperity, justice, certain times than at others. If you are being attacked shade of blue? a greener security, climate change, health and education – each by a man with a knife, security is likely to be of which also matter more to some than to others. uppermost in your mind. Beauty will at that Some people devote their lives to being rich, others moment seem irrelevant. But this, too, is true of all have no such inclination. For some, health is a the components of well-being. constant preoccupation, others cavalierly disregard their health and compromise their security for the If you are starving, it is food and the means to get it sake of adventure. that will be at the forefront of your attention, security at that moment will seem an irrelevance. If “But this is missing the point” say the critics. “The you are well fed and secure, but locked in a blank, real issue about beauty mattering differently for windowless cell, it is the beauty of sunlight for different people is that, unlike prosperity or security, which you will most long. beauty only matters for the rich who already have the other aspects of “ Surprise, surprise: Well-being is kaleidoscopic. Its quality of life. Just ask people in hard- poor people care patterns change with each shake of pressed estates what they care about – about what their life. But beauty is one of its most and they’ll tell you pretty quickly how significant elements: a life amidst much importance they attach to surroundings look ugliness is one of the most important beauty.” like, just like rich forms of deprivation and the search people” for beauty is one of the great My answer to such critics is that it is motivations of the human spirit. intensely patronising to imagine that poor people don’t care about beauty.The people “But”, say the politically anaesthetic, “even if we who care about beauty are the people who care accept your argument that the beauty of our natural about beauty. Some of them are rich and some of and built environment matters as a component of them are poor.There is nothing about being poor well-being, how can we take seriously your assertion S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 48

46 that politics has an important role to play? Surely, The estate agents understand it, and trade on it.The beauty is in the eye of the individual beholder, and fashion designers understand it and trade on it. A there is nothing that politics – which is collective large part of the economy – from auction houses to action – can do to bring it about.” historic houses – is founded upon the recognition that people attach value to what they consider This critique rests on three propositions: beautiful. However subjective the underlying tastes may be, the market translates them in its inevitably • beauty, being in the eye of the beholder, is not an crude, but nevertheless powerful way, into real objective good; economic forces. • since beauty is not an objective good, it cannot be realised by collective action; and So why, in the public sphere, should we be • since politics is collective action, it cannot bring a greener shade of blue? a greener embarrassed about recognising the value of beauty? about beauty. When we designate some parts of the country as areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs), we are I believe that each of these propositions is mistaken implicitly recognising that it is possible to make a in an interesting and important way. political decision about what is beautiful. Is this an unwarranted imposition of the subjective preference The status of aesthetic judgement is a deep and age- of some committee upon the nation? Would Britain old question. Whether beauty is a matter of be a better place and government a fairer thing if we subjective taste, or whether aesthetic judgement is refrained from such designations and let the (as it at least pretends to be) an assertion that is bulldozers tear up the loveliest of Britain’s capable of being true or false, is an issue we can countryside? Surely not. leave to the philosophers.The important point, so far as the political debate is concerned, is that even if Go back to the view and its monetary value.The aesthetic judgements are merely expressions of places that are designated as AONBs would attract a subjective taste, they define what are, from the premium in the market, because they are widely perspective of public policy, objective goods. perceived as especially beautiful.The law, in according them a special designation, is merely The view from Lyme Regis, across Lyme Bay to the recognising that objective fact about aesthetic Golden Cap, and Portland Bill beyond may be, in preferences. Public policy is anticipating market fact, some absolute sense, beautiful. Or it may simply be and translating it through regulation into public to the taste of a large number of people. But, either good. way, it has an objectively measurable monetary value. To put it crudely, people will pay for this view. “But”, say the critics, “even if this works for the preservation of beauty, it will never work for the In the market-place, the objective monetary value creation of beauty.You may be able to determine attached to aesthetic preference is well understood. what existing natural scenery and artefacts people S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 49

attach a high value to, and hence find an objective beautiful and eco-friendly and, within that 47 reference point for public policy decisions about constraint, make it as cheap, serviceable and durable preservation, but you will never find a similar as possible. Who can honestly claim that it has objective reference point when it comes to creating always been the second attitude rather than the first what doesn’t yet exist. So you can’t take account of which has guided decisions about public sector the value of creating beauty in politics, even if you construction? can take account of the value of preserving beauty.” If it becomes predominant in public sector This argument, too, is flawed. construction, will the second attitude (the beauty- first attitude),inevitably produce what is later widely Of course, I do not suggest that politicians should regarded as beautiful? No.The prize for architectural

establish a cultural health and beauty executive for merit awarded to the towers built by the Department shade of blue? a greener the purpose of making Britain more beautiful.That of the Environment in Marsham Street in London would be an example of crude statism, all too likely some decades ago – and now mercifully demolished to produce the opposite of its intended effect. It is – is a testament to the difficulty of making ex ante not easy to find a Lorenzo de Medici to head such aesthetic judgements. But if the effort is at least an executive, and it is not easy to see how such a made, through the adoption of the beauty-first Lorenzo would operate successfully in a modern principle, there is every reason to suppose that the democracy. average aesthetic quality of public construction (which continues to form a “ The state itself But it is giving up too easily to conclude that, significant proportion of total because crude statism won’t work, a modern liberal construction) will rise. And if the test has a direct role democracy has no means of making its towns, cities applied by those responsible for the in creating and suburbs more beautiful.There are at least two public construction is the objective test beauty and complementary and mutually reinforcing approaches of aesthetic preference (will people pay ugliness” that we can take.The first consists of the state taking more to live near, or in what is being account of beauty in its own activities.The second designed?), the likelihood of an consists of promoting the consciousness of beauty as improvement in peoples’ experienced quality of life a social responsibility. will rise and the danger of aesthetic catastrophe engendered by the establishment fad of the moment The state itself has a direct role in creating beauty will diminish. and ugliness. Public housing, public buildings and other public construction are classic examples. When But building the beauty-first principle into public taxpayers’ money is used for construction, there are construction is only half the battle. Building the two possible attitudes: build what is cheap, creation of beauty into the idea of social serviceable and durable without undue regard to responsibility is at least as important. beauty or the environment. Or, build what is S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 50

48 “Aha”, I can hear the critic saying, “so you don’t the neighbours would pay to have the beautiful believe your own argument about the objective version rather than the ugly version next to them), monetary value of beauty. If you did, you would this measurement does not enter the calculations of think that there was no need to talk about social the constructor.The constructor’s business is based responsibility in this context – the market would do on the internal rate of return on his investment, not the trick all by itself.” But the critic is missing a vital on the consequences his investment has for parties distinction between two things: internal rate of external to the transaction. From the point of view return and the externalities. of society as a whole, there is a market failure.

Just as those commissioning public sector What is needed is some means of bringing home to construction projects have choices to make about the constructor his social responsibility to make his

a greener shade of blue? a greener whether to take account of beauty and ecology or constructions not only eco-friendly but also merely practicality and cost, so a private constructor beautiful. It is, in other words, the business of has to make a judgement of profitability. Increasing government to provide mechanisms that will correct the beauty of any project will tend to increase the market failure by ensuring that the social revenue, but it may also increase cost. Who is to say responsibility to build beautifully is priced into whether, in a given case, the profit is to be private profit calculation – and thereby progressively maximised by the cheap and ugly or by the more to promote cultural change that makes it gradually expensive and more beautiful? Even fashionable to build beautifully rather than merely “ What is needed is if the choice is marginal, it may go practically. some means of in favour of the cheaper and uglier. bringing home to And, once the fashion has been set, There is, in short, a solid argument for supposing a more imaginative solution (as that the beauty of our natural and built the constructor his cheap, but more beautiful and hence environment: social responsibility actually more profitable) may not 1. matters; to make his even be considered at corporate 2. has an objectively measurable effect on well-being; headquarters – ‘not the way we do constructions not 3. can be affected by government preserving beauty things here’. only eco-friendly where it exists; 4. can be affected by public procurement policy; and but also beautiful” The underlying point is that the 5. can be affected by government tackling market impacts on the constructor’s failure to recognise externalities and promoting profitability and on the prospective the consciousness of beauty as a social purchaser’s desire to purchase are not the only responsibility. effects of the construction. It also has a social effect – its beauty or ugliness will impinge on the rest of If that isn’t crunchy, what is? us. And, although the social effect is objectively Oliver Letwin is a Member of Parliament for West Dorset measurable (by discovering how much, for example, and Chair of the Conservative Party Policy Review. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 51

references 49

1 Nicholas Stern, 2006, The economics of climate 12 Conservative Party, 1979, General Election change HM Treasury Manifesto 2 John Gray, 1993, Beyond the new right: markets, 13 Hazardous Waste Inspectorate, 1985, First report government and the common environment, Routledge 14 Polly Toynbee, 2007, Nimbys can’t be allowed to put 3 Labour Party, 1994 In Trust for Tomorrow a block on wind farms,The Guardian 4 Jonathan Porritt, 9 January 1997, World at One, 15 James Hansen, 23 June 1988,Testimony to the BBC Radio United States Senate Committee on Energy and shade of blue? a greener Natural Resources 5 Rupert Darwall, 16 July 2006, Saving the planet is bad economics, stupid, www.FT.com 6 Ed Matthews quoted in, 6 December 2006, Brown’s green measures feeble www.news.bbc.co.uk 7 James Healey, 8 February 2007, Evidence given to the House of Commons Treasury Committee - Climate change and the Stern review: implications for HM Treasury policy 8 Matthew Taylor quoted in Anthony Browne, March 12 2007, Travel firms and backbench MPs attack Tory plans to raise air taxes, The Times 9 The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, 10 June 1999, News Release www.rcep.org.uk 10 Labour Party, 1997, New Labour because Britain deserves better 11 Ibid. S3518_wayne_v5 11/5/07 15:01 Page 52

Green Alliance is an independent charity. For 28 years we have worked with businesses and other environmental charities to make environmental solutions a priority in British politics. We work with representatives of all three of the main political parties to encourage new ideas, facilitate dialogue and secure new commitments to action and progress on the environment.

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